The key to solving joblessness is more jobs

Five years after the president took office, many Americans are still asking the question, ‘Where are the jobs?’

Wages are stagnant, and the middle class is getting squeezed. For every individual out of work, it is a personal crisis for them and their families.

The key to solving joblessness is more jobs, but we have too many politicians in Washington who are focused on making it easier to live without one – it just doesn’t make sense.

I recently heard from Gene, a small business owner in Butler County. Gene is frustrated, like I am, with programs that grow the size and scope of government at the expense of freedom and opportunity.

For example, Gene expects that ObamaCare and its higher costs will result in fewer customers walking through his doors. This hit, combined with the law’s employer mandate, will only make it tougher for Gene to hire and expand.

Of course, Gene isn’t the only one concerned about ObamaCare. As reported this week in the Journal-News, only 19 percent of ObamaCare enrollees in Ohio were between the ages of 18 and 34. It’s no wonder young people aren’t rushing to sign up as they see how the law drives up costs, limits access to doctors, and leaves personal information exposed to scammers and theft.

This fundamentally broken law cannot be fixed. House Republicans have acted to defund and scrap ObamaCare in its entirety, but the Democrats who control the White House and Senate refuse to listen to the people. So to protect as many Americans as possible – and help build momentum for an altogether different, patient-centered approach – we’re passing common-sense bills to do things like delay the law’s individual mandate, allow people to keep their health plan, and protect themselves in the event of a security breach.

In fact, the House has passed dozens of jobs bills – many of them with strong votes from both Democrats and Republicans – to create a better environment for private-sector job creation and provide relief from ObamaCare. Unfortunately, too many of these bills remain stuck in the Senate, including measures to expand jobs training, curb excessive regulation, and a bipartisan bill to approve the Keystone pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would create.

To learn more about the current status of these House-passed jobs bills, visit SPEAKER.HOUSE.GOV/JOBS.

President Obama says he wants this to be a ‘year of action’ – and this can be a bipartisan year to work on growing our economy and getting Americans back to work. Recent passage of a bill funding government operations until this fall is a step in that direction.

While not perfect, this bill keeps the government open while further reining in the out-of-control spending that smothers growth and acts like a wet blanket on our economy. I am particularly pleased that this measure contains no earmarks, which were once a symbol of a broken Washington. Plus, it does not provide any new or additional funding for ObamaCare.

After years of The Left’s ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ approach to governing, it would be great to see Democrats and Republicans coming together around pro-growth solutions to help workers and small businesses succeed. And why not start with the dozens of House-passed bills just sitting in the Senate? We’re also ready to work with the White House and Senate on trade promotion authority, which would help open new markets to American-made goods and create jobs in a number of states. One of these states is Ohio, which is rebounding under the pro-growth policies of our governor, John Kasich, but could be doing even better with some cooperation from Washington.

The opportunity to enact pro-growth policies at the federal level on a bipartisan basis is right in front of us. If the Democratic-controlled Senate were to finally take action on some of these measures, I’m sure the American people would welcome it.

Boehner represents Ohio’s 8th District, which includes all of Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami, and Preble counties, and the southernmost part of Mercer County. He was first elected to Congress in 1990.